Sufism

Out beyond ideas of
wrongdoing and rightdoing
there lies a field.
I'll meet you there.
When the soul lies down in that grass,
the world is too full to talk about.
Ideas, language, even the phrase each other
doesn't make any sense.
 
                                ---  Rumi

History
Mystical orientation inside Sunni Islam. A person who belongs to Sufism, is called a Sufi. Sufi is a term used by Moslems to denote any variety of mysticism, and comes from the Arabic word Sufi, which was applied, in the 2nd century of Islam, to men or women who adopted an ascetic or quietistic way of life. There can be no doubt that Sufi is derived from suf (wool) in reference to the woollen garments often, though not invariably, worn by such persons: the phrase labisa's-suf ("he clad himself in wool") is commonly used in this sense, and the Persian word pashmina-push, which means literally "clothed in a woollen garment,," is synonymous with Sufi.

In order to trace the origin and history of mysticism in Islam we must go back to Muhammad. On one side of his nature the Prophet was an ascetic and in some degree a mystic. Notwithstanding his condemnation of Christian monkery (rah-bdniya), i. e. of celibacy and the solitary life, the example of the IJanifs, with some of whom he was acquainted, and the Christian hermits made a deep impression on his mind and led him to preach the efficacy of ascetic exercises, such as prayer, vigils and fasting.

The germs of mysticism latent in Islam from the first were rapidly developed by the political, social and intellectual conditions which prevailed in the two centuries following the Prophet's death. Sufism developed gradually in those first centuries of Islam. The early Sufis were closely attached to the Mahommedan church.

Devastating civil wars, a ruthless military despotism caring only for the things of this world, Messianic hopes and presages, the luxury of the upper classes, the hard mechanical piety of the orthodox creed, the spread of rationalism and freethought, all this induced a revolt towards asceticism, quietism, spiritual feeling and emotional faith. Thousands, wearied and disgusted with worldly vanities, devoted themselves to God. The terrors of hell, so vividly depicted in the Koran, awakened in them an intense consciousness of sin, which drove them to seek salvation in ascetic practices.

Sufism got its content and its rituals inside Islam, but it also picked up elements from older religious practices. Sufism as a tradition has had many theoreticians, but has still been a practice mainly used among ordinary peoples, and often performed without much consent from the religious elite.

Beliefs
Sufism's aim is to gain a closer connection to God and higher knowledge. The intention is to go towards the Truth, by means of love and devotion. This is called the Tariqat, the Spiritual Path or way towards God.This is gained through communal ceremonies, where trance is widely used. The core of Sufism is to leave the ordinary life, in order to become closer to God. And by reducing the distance between man and God, man also gets closer to truth and knowledge. The soul is seen upon as an element that can stretch out from the carnal body, and pass through the divine spheres. Even if few Sufis will claim that they can reach all they way to God, knowledge and insight increases the closer one manages to get.

The Sufis believe that only by the light of the Spiritual Path and the mystic way can the Truth really be actualized. In order for one to truly witness the Perfection of the Absolute, one must see with one's inner being, which perceives the whole of Reality. This witnessing happens when one becomes perfect, losing one's (partial) existence in the Whole.

If the Whole is likened to the Ocean, and the part to a drop, the sufi says that witnessing the Ocean with the eye of a drop is impossible. However, when the drop becomes one with the Ocean, it sees the Ocean with the eye of the Ocean.

Sufis believe that each person is a unique representative of the Divine. The Sufis say, "If human beings knew their own inner secrets, never would they look elsewhere for seeking happiness, peace and inner light." Therefore the essence of the Path is to find oneself. "Know thyself, know thy Lord!" is an imperative of the Sufi Way.

Techniques
Techniques vary, but they have three things in common: rhythm, repetition and endurance. The actual technique can be utterance of words or phrases, singing and dancing. It can in some cases involve physical pain, or acting out illegal acts.

Purification and its Stages

The stages of purification are:
1. self becoming emptied
2. self becoming illuminated
3. self becoming adorned
4. self-having-passed-away (fana)

These stages occur in the course of the selfless remembrance of God (zekr). The first stage, becoming emptied, entails letting go of negative qualities, the desires which originate from the self.

The second stage of becoming illuminated involves polishing the heart and soul of the tarnish of belief in and attachment to the self.

In the third stage, one's inner being becomes adorned by Divine Attributes. Ultimately, the being of the disciple becomes completely filled by the Attributes of the Truth-Reality, to the extent that there is no sign of his own limited existence.

This fourth stage is called "self-having passed-away" (fana).

The disciple, through these stages of purification, travels the inner way, the Spiritual Path (Tariqat). But he or she can do so only by following the duties and obligations of Islam (Shariat). Having traveled this path, the disciple becomes a perfect being and arrives at the threshold of the Truth (Haqiqat).

One could liken the journey within the Haqiqat, within the Truth, to training in a divine university, the "Tavern of Ruin" (kharabat). In this true center for higher education there are no professors, one's only guide being Absolute Love. Here one's only teacher is Love, one's books are Love, and one's being is Love.

Sufism Today
There is little to find in the Koran that sustain the tradition of Sufism, and therefore Sufism have normally had big problems being accepted by the religious as well as the learned elite. Sufism has also had problems with surviving during modernization processes that have taken place in most of the Muslim world. Today Sufism will normally be performed in the countryside, and by people in the outskirts of towns that are so big that there are several cultures co-exisiting. Sufis are also often of a high average age, as recruiting among the young proves difficult. Nearly all Sufis are men. Today there are less Sufis than earlier, some estimates run at less than 5 million in the whole Muslim world. Sufism's strongest footholds are now in Egypt and Sudan.

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